


you were clearly meant for more (than a life lost in the war)

by violetinfidel



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Genre: The Chosen One type of fic but it isnt dramatic + its actually very stressful for his caretakers, and i know no one cares about val and artura, but i do!!, from making them important characters, i have literally no idea what to tag this as, so no one can stop me, val and artura are links uncles sorry but i made it canon now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 03:37:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17890751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetinfidel/pseuds/violetinfidel
Summary: to a kid it's probably exciting to find out that you're The Chosen One, but to your loved ones it's nothing more than a lot of anguish and worry. (his dad probably regrets naming him Link, huh?)





	you were clearly meant for more (than a life lost in the war)

 

If Valensuela hadn’t nearly tripped on one of the flagstones he probably would’ve run headlong into Artura as he turned the corner.

As it is he almost runs into him anyway- thank Hylia for a knight’s reflexes, even half-asleep in the dead of night- and manages to get his balance before he makes a fool of himself.

Artura smiles at him (looks a little out of it himself). “Not coming from the tavern, are you?”

Valensuela snorts. “Coming from bed,” He says with exaggerated disdain, “You know I don’t go there.”

“Well, with the way you’re stumbling I wondered whether you had a change of heart.”

He gives Artura a look. “I’m not like that and you know it.”

“It was a joke, you know.” Artura claps him on the shoulder and starts walking again and leaves him to catch up. “Did you get called up?”

“No, fortunately.” He pauses as they pass the door to Link’s room- it’s difficult to miss, it’s covered in little hand-painted flowers and triforces and swords that he and Zelda put there. “Just couldn’t sleep, I guess.”

Artura catches his glance at Link’s door as he says that, and he sighs. “You’re worried about the kid again. Am I right?”

“Of course I’m worried about him,” He says, with a little more heat than he means. “You said it. He’s a  _ kid _ . I know I sound like Leo when I say it but it isn’t  _ fair _ . You should see how excited he gets when he talks about all the legends of the heroes- the look in his eyes- he doesn’t  _ know _ .”

“Of course he doesn’t know,” Artura says with a somehow pointedly neutral tone, “No one’s told him. No one seems to have any plans to.”

“You could tell him.”

“So could you.” Artura gives him a moment to come up with a retort, and when he has none, gives him a knowing look. “Maybe  _ we  _ feel it’s best for him to be aware, but Leo says no, and he’s the father.”

“Link should know. He has every right to. It’s his future- maybe, most likely- and if we can warn him then shouldn’t we?”

“You know Leo’s reasons. He wants Link to be able to enjoy the childhood he has left to him.”

“It’s not a good reason. That’s like saying you won’t warn a general of an incoming siege just so he can enjoy his day off.”

“I’m not justifying anything one way or the other,” Artura says gently, “In case you’re forgetting, I’m on your side. I’m only reminding you that this is hurting Leo as much as you think it’s going to hurt Link.”

“You should see Link with his legend books, Artura. The way he idolizes the heroes. That’s the worst part of it, he’d be  _ happy _ if he knew, he’d be  _ excited _ \- the children’s books are the only tellings of the stories he’s ever known, and you know how inaccurate they are, they’re all sunshine and friendship, nothing about how  _ horrible  _ all of it was. He’s going to  _ want _ this.”

“Then let him want it,” Artura says matter-of-factly. “Let him be excited. It’s every child’s dream to be a hero, isn’t it? We want him to have his childhood, and he can.”

“You don’t  _ understand _ ,” He says, exasperated with how dense Artura is acting, “It’s-”

“I understand a lot more than you seem to think I do,” Artura says with hot conviction. “I think I may understand more than you do. There’s the child’s view and the truth of the matter. Let them coexist. We can help him to know that it isn’t going to be easy and not everything will be good, but there’s no reason to make a nervous wreck out of him, either. He can look forward to the adventure even knowing that it isn’t a field game. He’s a smart kid, even if he doesn’t act like it sometimes. I think he’ll understand more than we’re giving him credit for.”

They walk in silence for a while (neither really sure where they’re going) and all the while Valensuela tries to counter Artura’s argument and finds no way around it. 

“I wonder how long he has,” He says finally, quietly. “If we’re stressing over something that won’t even matter or if it’ll be too late by the time we make a decision.”

Artura shrugs and says nothing.

“Are you upset with me now?”

“No,” Artura says (and seems to have to think about it, which isn’t exactly convincing). “Not with you, anyway. I’m upset that we have to worry about this when he’s so young.”

“And that’s what makes it so difficult, that’s what I’m saying, he’s-”

He cuts himself off, squints at the small figure shuffling into view down the corridor, and instinctively his hand goes to where his sword normally would rest (except he’s not on patrol, and he doesn’t have any weapons).

“Name and business,” He says, approaching with as much authority as he can muster while wearing old sleep clothes (Artura says and does nothing, and just a little too late Valensuela realizes that he probably knew what he didn’t).

“Link,” The little person says, and he steps into the dim moonlight clutching a blanket and his little stuffed chu, “And, um, I don’t know, walking.” 

(Valensuela hadn’t even realized they’d walked back around to the residency wing.)

He can hear Artura laughing at him as he sighs and kneels down to hug Link. “Sorry, kid, I think I’m still half-asleep.”

“That’s okay,” Link says, trying to choke him with his hug like he always does, “I thought it was funny.” Valensuela feels a little finger push at his stomach. “There’s a hole in your shirt here.”

“I know, I’ve been meaning to fix it, but I’ve been too busy watching you, you little rascal.” He gives Link a little playful push backwards and Link laughs as he stumbles and runs up to Artura to hug him too.

“You should be in bed,” Artura tells him. “I thought we said no more climbing onto the roof at midnight.”

“You only made that rule so you wouldn’t have to get up in the middle of the night to get me back down.”

“None of us particularly enjoy rescuing the damsel in distress at three in the morning.”

“Then you should make the roof easier to get off of,” Link says matter-of-factly. “And I wasn’t going there anyway.”

“Then where  _ were _ you off to? Going to steal Arcy’s leftovers again?”

“No,” Link gasps, affronted, “I only do that like once a month! I had a bad dream,” He admits sheepishly, drawing the blanket around himself, “And I thought I’d heard you guys talking, so I came out to find you.” He seems to realize something, and he drops his gaze to the floor and shifts his weight nervously. “I was gonna ask if someone could stay with me, but if you’re on pajama patrol or whatever it’s fine, I can go bother Lucien.”

“I don’t think he’d wake up if the moon was going to crash into us,” Artura says, and Link very much appreciates the reference to the legends. “We aren’t busy.”

“Good, ‘cause he snores.”

Link takes each of their hands and promptly begins to drag them back to his room, and even with a bed the size of a small city there’s hardly room to sit among all the stuffed toys and blankets and pillows.

“You need to clean your room,” Valensuela says, and Link flees under the blankets.

“You’re not my dad.”

“I’ll tell your dad and he can tell you.”  
“He’s not the boss of me. I’m not under his battalion, so ha.”

“As a trainee, you’re under mine,” Artura says, and Link sticks his tongue out at him and hides under the duvet.

“You didn’t get us in here just to play around, right?”

“This is how I sleep,” Link says, little more than a lump under the bedding, until two minutes later he throws the blankets off and gasps for air like a drowning man. “Hot in there,” He says with his best winning you-don’t-have-to-call-me-out smile.

“Go to sleep, kid. I’ll give you extra laps if you don’t.”

“You won’t,” Link says, but he settles down all the same. “I’m your favorite and you love me too much and you’ll just call me a lovable scamp and let me off the hook.”

“Are you willing to call my bluff?”

“...No.”

Link lays with his eyes closed for a minute, then says “Neither of you asked about my dream.”

“You’ll describe it anyway. I figured you’d wait until your father came back.”

“It was weird,” Link continues blithely. “Not even good weird. It changed a lot. I kept, like- I was in so many places I thought were going to kill me. Like in these twisty underwater tunnels, and they were dark and I kept thinking I was going to drown, only every time I took a breath I was actually fine, but my feet were so heavy and I couldn’t swim up- and there was a volcano, too, or somewhere super hot, and the air was so thick I thought I was going to suffocate, but even when I accidentally touched fire or lava the worst I got was a lot of ash on me. It wasn’t even like I was dying or being hurt, but everything felt so… so… pushing-in-on-me.”

“Oppressive?” Artura suggests, and Link nods.

“Yeah, that.” He shivers. “I hated it.”

And Link settles down for the night for real after that admission, cuddles his toy of the night and gets comfortable. He’s on the verge of sleep when he lets out a long breath and folds his arms over his chest. 

“I think I know what that was,” He says with a strange tremor to his voice, “I wonder how that hero felt. Maybe the temples weren’t so fun after all.”

Artura and Valensuela exchange a glance.

“Who knows? It was only a dream,” Valensuela says softly. “Come get us if you need us, okay?”

Link nods and a minute later he’s asleep, like none of it ever happened.

“We need to tell him,” Valensuela whispers as soon as the door is closed behind them.

 

“We aren’t telling him,” Leonel says the second he sees Valensuela’s face. “Not happening. Artura, help me out here.”

Artura says nothing.

“Don’t tell me you’re in on this,” Leonel says with something approaching panic in his voice.

“I’ve kept my opinion to myself on this up until now. He’s starting to catch on by himself.” 

“He’s never said anything. Never mentioned anything like that. Don’t lie to me about this.”

“He isn’t lying,” Valensuela says firmly. “Leo, we’ve gone along with it for this long, but it’s time.”

“If he’s figuring it out by himself then let him figure it out, it’ll be a while still and he’ll be older by then.”  
“You’re assuming we even have that long,” Valensuela says, irritated now, “That _he_ has that long before things start happening. You’re assuming that it’s going to take a long time. You’re running on a lot of stupid assumptions-”

“I’m making assumptions because that’s all we have,” Leonel snaps, “This whole  _ hero _ business is an assumption too, need I remind you, and if we’re calling anything stupid then maybe it ought to be that-”

“The only stupid thing is your refusal to come to terms with this!”

Valensuela is ready to either slap Leonel or leave the room and not speak to him for a week, or maybe both, and Leonel clearly shares the sentiment, but Artura still stands at the door unspeaking. 

“Would you like to tell me how to be a father too?” Leonel demands. “Care to share your omniscience with me?”

“Don’t be like this with me,” Artura says coolly, “I’ve been nothing but patient with you. I expect you’ll return the courtesy.”

“As your superior-”

“I’m calling bullshit,” Artura says, and something about his tone combined with him cursing makes Leonel stop short. “Excuse my language, but you aren’t listening, and you never pull the superior card on us. The two of you can argue all you like, but I have somewhere to be, so I’ll leave you with this: do you want him to find out from the people who love him, or do you want him to have to piece it together from little broken dreams? Because if you leave him to figure it out himself and he comes to you one day with the truth in his head and tears in his eyes and all you can say is that you already knew, I wonder how he’s going to feel.”

Artura leaves, and after a minute, Valensuela leaves too- there’s nothing to say after  _ that _ , and Leonel seems unable to come up with anything adequate. 

And he’s sitting with Artura at dinner when Leonel comes up to them and pulls them aside and says only ‘okay’.

 

* * *

 

Link walks in the room they’re sitting in and immediately turns on the puppy-eyes and the remorseful shoulder slouch and the sad shuffling walk. “What did he tell you,” He says with the fear of a repeat offender in his voice.

“This isn’t about whatever trouble you got into today,” Leonel says, and sighs, “Though Hylia knows I can’t wait to find out.”

Link brightens immediately. “I just figured since it was all three of you, y’know, you only call the whole discipline council when I’ve really gotten into it. I only hit him with my sword ‘cuz he said I was a daddy’s boy,” He adds with all the innocence in the world.

Leonel has to throw a sharp elbow his way to get Valensuela to stop laughing. 

“We don’t punish truth in this castle, Link.”

Leonel glares at Artura. “We’ll deal with that later,” He says with great emphasis, “We wanted to talk to you about something else.”

“My birthday, right?”

“It’s four months away, Link.”

“I know,” He says brightly, squeezing between him and Valensuela to get to the biggest cushion, “But it’s very important. It’s my tenth birthday, you know. Double-digits and all. Very solemn occasion,” He says gravely. “Zel and I have it all planned out. There’s going to be a ceremony and everything and I’m gonna get to use the fancy crystal cups that everyone says I’m not allowed to even look at.”

“The birthday planning comes when it’s closer to the day and when your behavior improves.”

“Well, that’s not gonna happen, so we should get started early.”

“Link.”

“O- _ kay _ ,” Link drawls, settling back into the cushions, “Fine, what boring thing do you wanna tell me?”

Leonel doesn’t want to talk about it or doesn’t know how to articulate it, especially not to a nine-year-old, not his son, and Valensuela is not in Leonel’s best graces currently, so it’s Artura who addresses him. 

“We’ve been paying close attention for a while,” He says, “To the way you act and the dreams that you have.”

“I thought you were just listening to be nice,” Link says with honest astonishment, “Really? They’re that interesting?”

“Well- yes, they are, but that isn’t exactly the point. You know what most of them have in common, don’t you?”

“They’re about the legends,” Link says, fully attentive now that they’ve engaged his interests, “Not all of them but a lot of them. Except there are parts in them I’ve never read before, but that’s okay because it’s probably my imagination. I know where they go because they fit together, like a big puzzle except I don’t get all the pieces at once. So sometimes they don’t make sense at first but I get them later. Like one of them was about a tornado and it didn’t make any sense to me because everything was so scary and blurry but then like a year later I had another dream and then I understood because it happened in the sky on the bird!” He pauses for a second and then adds “But I still don’t know where it came from. It was such a nice day.”

Artura sits patiently through his rambling, and when he’s finished, asks “What else do they have in common?”

That stumps him for a moment. “I mean, the legends, but…” He stares at his feet. “Um. I’m doing things?”

“You’re on the right track.”

“...I’m doing crazy things?”

“Not the part I wanted you to focus on.”

Link scowls. “I’m doing things… I’m  _ doing _ things… I’m doing  _ thin _ \- oh!  _ I’m _ doing things!”

“There you go,” Artura says, and ruffles his hair, and Link grins. “It’s about that. It’s mostly guesswork, so we still aren’t one hundred percent sure, but you know how the legends go and how the hero always gets reborn, right?”

“Yeah,” Link says, eyes growing wide, “Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait.” He gasps. “He’s back?!”

“We think that-”

“Do I know him?!” Link interrupts, practically vibrating with barely suppressed happiness. “Does he train with me? Do  _ you _ train him, Artura? How old is he? Could I meet him? Does he like kids even? ‘Cuz if he doesn’t it’s fine ‘cuz he’ll like  _ me _ -”

“Link,” Artura says in the voice that he uses with the trainees that means that he needs to be quiet, and Link knows that voice very well, so he stops his tangent and sits there shaking with excitement and joy and looking between them with wide eyes.

“We think it’s you,” Leonel says, with admirable composure. 

Link freezes. “You’re kidding,” He says slowly, “...Right? This is a trick to punish me for annoying you?”

“We wouldn’t joke about something like that.”

Slowly a smile spreads across Link’s face until he’s grinning like a lunatic. “Really?  _ Really _ ?! Me? That’s so awesome!”

“Well-”

“Oh man, wait ‘til I tell everyone, they’re gonna be so jealous-”

“None of that,” Artura says with amused tolerance, “I already said, this is guesswork. We aren’t sure, so don’t go spreading rumors. This is between us and a few other people.”

“Fine,” Link says with the voice that means that he’s not registering any kind of admonition at this point, “But I’m still the hero so ha!”

“We don’t  _ know _ ,” Leonel insists, and Link jumps on him and makes a failed attempt to take him down. 

“I’m the hero and that means that I’m in charge and that means no more bedtime!”

“You’re not saving anything running on half an hour of sleep and a bag of marshmallows, kid,” Artura says, prying him off Leonel’s back. “Take it easy. You should know from the dreams that it isn’t all fun and games.”

Link waves him off dismissively. “I know that,” He says patronizingly, “But don’t you even hear yourself? I’m the  _ hero _ ! That’s so cool!”

“It is,” Valensuela agrees, “But you know that means more work.”

Link blows a raspberry at that. “Work, shmerk, you guys make me do everything all the time anyway.” He pauses, evidently having an epiphany. “Wait, that’s why, isn’t it? You  _ guys _ !!! How long have you known? You’ve been keeping this a secret for like forever!”

“We wanted to be as sure as we could before we said anything,” Leonel says.

“It would’ve been unfortunate if we’d told you that only to find that little Johnny from down the street woke up one day with the triforce on the back of his hand.”

Link laughs at that. “But he didn’t! ‘Cuz it’s me!”

“Don’t let it get to your head,” Valensuela says, “Leo’s still your father-”

“And you’re still my fake uncles, what _ ever _ , I  _ know _ , can’t you let me have my moment?”

“We’re giving you your moment right now,” Valensuela says and pushes him back onto the cushion, where Link lays dramatically like a slain man, “But don’t expect special treatment, little man.”

“I already get special treatment,” Link says proudly. “My training commander’s my fake uncle and my captain’s my dad and my best friend is the princess. I get the most special treatment out of everyone in the entire world.”

“Just don’t forget that your fake uncle can make your training hours very difficult.”

“But my fake uncle won’t because he wants his fake nephew to love him.”

“The fake nephew is going to get a lot of extra work tomorrow if he keeps talking back.”

“Fake uncle loves me,” Link insists, but he does stop, and he gets up (and throws the cushion at Valensuela). “And speaking of people who love me, I gotta go get Zelda right now ‘cuz I said I’d sneak her out to the town so we can get ice cream since  _ Arcy _ won’t give it to us. Can I tell her? Zelda, I mean? If she promises she won’t tell anyone? Actually I’m gonna tell her anyway because she’s the princess and she can just order me to tell her if she wants to so I’m gonna go!”

He hugs each of them with twice his normal enthusiasm (if such a thing were possible) and goes running off to find Zelda, and Leonel watches him go with a strange mix of pride and despair.

“He took it well,” Valensuela says pleasantly, in his sweetest I-told-you-so tone, and Leonel throws an elbow into his side.

  
  
  
  



End file.
